Conventional tampons are compressed cylindrical masses of absorbent fibers primarily cellulosic in nature. The tampons which are somewhat bullet-shaped are compressed to provide rigidity for ease of insertion and also to maximize the amount of absorbent material per cross sectional diameter available for absorbent purposes. When these conventional cellulosic materials are wetted by menses, the tampons swell and become more flexible however until this wetting occurs, leakage is possible between the inner walls of the vagina and the outer edges of the tampon.
Also the tampon manufacturing process is somewhat cumbersome in that it involves the steps of making a fibrous batt forming the batt into the appropriate shape compressing and heat setting to maintain the compressed configuration.
Attempts have been made in the past to produce a tampon which avoids the steps of compression and forming.
One of these approaches has been to utilize a porous foam-like material which while substantially more flexible and shape conforming does not absorb or maintain fluid as well as the conventional cellulosic materials.
Other attempts such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,068 and 3,320,956 teach the concept of producing a tampon solely with parallelly aligned fibers. In each of these instances, the fibers are folded and a withdrawal string is attached at the apex of the fold.
Another approach is that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,511 which discloses in part a two component tampon system. The inner component is a rigid support body for an outer component which is one embodiment comprises a mixture of thermoplastic and nonthermoplastic fibers which are fused together in a fibrous mass which is supposedly soft and shape conforming. This patent involves several separate manufacturing steps in the production of the assembled composite product.